15 Padres Become Minor League Free Agents

Baseball America released the complete list of Minor League free agents yesterday. As usual, there were some familiar names included. It’s always an interesting read, but also always kind of sad to see some of the names included.

The San Diego Padres had 15 members of the organization declared free agents. They are as follows:

"RHP: Greg Burke (AAA), Samuel Deduno (AAA), Will Inman (AAA), Craig Italiano (AA), Jon Leicester (AAA), Luis Perdomo (AAA)C: Guillermo Quiroz (AAA)2B: Anthony Contreras (AAA), Jarrett Hoffpauir (AAA)3B: Pedro Feliz (AAA)SS: Jesus Lopez (AAA), Steve Tolleson (AAA)OF: Bobby Kielty (AAA), Drew Macias (AAA), Carlos Sosa (AA)"

A handful of these guys might re-up with the Padres, but many, too, will move on in their quest to either get to, or in some cases, return to the major leagues.

You won’t usually find too many guys on this list who are former major league starts, but very often there will be a few names that were, at one time, prominent major league regulars. Feliz certainly fits that description.

Some other notables include RHP Jeff Suppan, former AL Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa, 1B Nick Johnson, who sports a career .401 OBP in the big leagues, CF Willy Taveras, INF Jorge Cantu (/shudders), LHP Kei Igawa, whom the Yankees threw a ton of money ($20 million) at to import from Japan. In return, he gave them 71 major league innings and a 6.66 ERA.

Former Padre second baseman Josh Barfield is on the list, late of the Phillies. OF Scott Podsednik is there as well. LHPs Nate Robertson and Oliver Perez and former Rockies closer Manny Corpas are on the list, along with Jason Lane, who once hit 26 home runs for the Astros. His last big league action came with the 2007 Padres, for whom he went 0-for-2 in three games.

Of course, it’s not all about the former big leaguers who fell from grace. There are some former first-round picks on the list as well; guys that just never lived up to the expectations. For each of these guys, they’ll hope to catch on for another year, maybe with another organization, just hoping for another shot to make their living as major league ballplayers.

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